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Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 394.12
EAN: 9780679744382
ISBN: 067974438X
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: June 29, 1993
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: June 29, 1993
Studio: Vintage
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Editorial Review:
From the extravagant use of pepper in the Middle Ages to the Protestant bourgeoisie's love of coffee to the reason why fashionable Europeans stopped sniffing tobacco and starting smoking it, Schivelbusch looks at how the appetite for pleasure transformed the social structure of the Old World. Illustrations.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - A wonderful introduction
I do not, in general, read history books - social or otherwise but I have been reading a variety of food-related history and culture books. From this context, I found Schivelbush's Tastes of Paradise to be "just right." He provides the broad framework within which he leads the reader through exploration of spices, beer, chocolate, tea, coffee, snuff, opium (and in an afterword, bottled water). Through the study of the place and manner of consumption, he shows some of the effects of these intoxicants ... Read More
Rating:  - A Matter of Usage
I must beg to differ with my fellow reviewers about
the merits of this book. I do agree that the treatment
of individual spices is cursory and that the lack of
an index is a disappointment. What I find to praise
here is perhaps the very thing that others find to blame.
Schivelbusch has a point of view that is rooted in
wanting to discover the attitudes, behavior and beliefs
that underlay the European fascination with spicing foods.
He offers ... Read More
Rating:  - Not as piquant as I had hoped...
This just had to be a subject right up my alley. Spices? I live in Texas where Tabasco is a condiment (and not a spice) and jalapenos are considered vegetables. Stimulants? I have a coffee cup surgically attached to my hand and Brazilian music runs constantly through my head. Intoxicants? I worship beer. What could be better than a book about all three subjects?
Tastes of Paradise considers the social use of and social importance of spices, stimulants, and intoxicants largely from a Western point of ... Read More
Rating: - Left me wanting more
And I see from the reviews below that I wasn't the only one. The author has really picked a fascinating subject, and brings it to life, weaving together strands of economics, sociology, geography, and chemistry to explain some of the impacts that these now-commonplace items have had on Western culture. (And what impacts our culture has had on the items - did you know that chocolate was a drink for monks and aristocrats before it became a snack for children?)
But the book is far too short. Many subjects ... Read More
Rating: - Engaging and readable
Schivelbusch's Tastes of Paradise provides a refreshingly light-hearted, yet engaging glimpse at some of the substances which, through our stomachs, lungs, and palates, have played a not insignificant role in personal and cultural interactions of European civilizations. Concentrating primarily on western societies between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, Schivelbusch devotes over 50 pages to each of the subjects of coffee, tobacco, and alcohol; he also includes ample discussion of the historical ... Read More
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